Opinion: The International Left Gets Revenge in Guatemala

Rios Montt is popular among the same people he is alleged to have tried to exterminate. Photo: Associated Press.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... a former director for mall was guilty of genocide why didn't someone who people he was allegedly trying to kill vote for him here to tells the stories may Anastasia O'Grady are America's columnist ... Mary are batting a lot of male over this column this week and I'm talking about the of ... the man who is ... accused of ... genocide of the general real smiles of former dictator in the Guatemala ... I'm in this goes back to the long battle between his government and the communists of which are rich for a long time but the ... commies Pena prosecuted now basically is a as a war criminal and of ... what people Guatemala saying that this is a bad rap ... yet I mean the piano the case of Guatemala is actually in stock and in the entire region which is that the last ... aam had this growing movement in the sixties seventies eighties nineties I supported by key about ... and which was supported by the Soviet Union I they lost ... and they've long been seeking revenge and one way that they've gotten as far as they have is that the re write the narrative about what happened ... and we're seeing this and and very clearly in this case where Rios mom and general ... of who led the country as a dictator there was a Colonel in nineteen eighty two when he was ... bringing the country from March eighty two to August of eighty three ... and I he prosecuted the war there any didn't very impressively ... ah but now they've taken him before won on Corinth they've accuse him of genocide ... and that he was sick and proclaimed guilty ... so this of this so genocide is a live show happened against of ... the unknown is the issue Indians of I'm protests in the critically I go in the initial triangle um ... and of basically of ... the was of fighting of any communist of the war with the I would imagine some of the ball the region on the coming inside and some on insider Adelaide and was the civil war ... and I in fact what may be these people who ... it came to have so much care for the Indians ... most of them from the last ... I don't want to acknowledge is that the war was brought to these Indian regions of the country ... final after scurrilous ... because they wanted to choose a population that was isolated and ... and that they can control and that's what they didn't they use those areas a safe havens to plan and execute their tax on the rest of the country and when we last month came into power ... he recognize and ... any said you know what I can do is get these people on my side and make them feel like they're part of the country ... because before that they were in there in the shell triangle but they weren't ... aam treated as citizens of the country and that was his objective ... now he wrote down to their documents military documents that say that he was out to exterminate and liquidate ... on DNA ... and this fireside unknown whenever you're a warrant that's your objective is to ... the idea but what they ended up being Apple to do was I say that this use of these words was directed at the shield which there are no documents where I can find that tannins the attorney general's office in Guatemala and they ... were not able to produce the media pretty clear he wanted to rid of the communists not the Indians though they tried to use in conflate the tail and use that as evidence that he wanted to exterminate the Indians but did just to be clear that you're not arguing that does some very awful things were not done by people under his command to me this isn't a very ... there were terrible concentrate on both sides ... of the army had committed massacres burned villages and so forth but he was not a stain ... on strategy of ex terminating the local population and in fact ... many of the people in the army ... are indigenous people ... so the idea that they were trying to extend they were undecided in this foreign Yemeni O a good as the last thing the study as you mentioned it to power as a dictator ... but I eventually did face voters including the voters in that area ... yen two thousand and three he ran for president ... and in the shell triangle Keebler everybody is so way he ... he won the most amount of votes ... and was also interesting is that it meant he lost the election nationally but he won the Shell triangle ... and the guy who did one of them very poorly was the former are only there ... and ah so you know I think it becomes very obvious when you look at the evidence and you know you're in human history ... I've that the people in the shell triangle actually won and protection from the state and he provided that ... and and they say it was a war ... a lot of people were killed on both sides and there were some terrible things that happened was a genocide ... I don't think there's any evidence of bonds is grim amazing to see this kind of prosecution and have so many of the alleged victims of support the alleged perpetrator base it does make you wonder about the of the justice system in this